Italian forces to leave Iraq by December (Guardian)

Staff and agencies
Wednesday June 7, 2006

The new Italian administration today confirmed all Italian troops would withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year.

Italy's foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema, said the government would start reducing the number of troops in Iraq this month and the Italian military presence in Iraq would end by December.

He said: "We believe the Italian military mission in Iraq is moving towards its end. During the coming months, military forces will return to their country.

"We think that by the end of this year the Italian military mission will end in Iraq."

It is the first time a minister from the newly elected centre-left government has given a timetable for the pullout of Italy's 2,700 troops. The Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, was recently elected on a platform of withdrawing troops from Iraq swiftly but until today his government had not discussed timing.
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more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1792196,00.html

Also:

Italy Confirms Troop Withdrawl From Iraq (AHN)

June 8, 2006 12:15 p.m. EST

Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Contributor
Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema on Wednesday announced that the country intendeds to pull out all its troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
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While speaking at a joint news conference at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
He said the "security plan to transfer the security tasks from the Italian forces to the Iraqi forces" will start by the end of June.

Italy has 2,700 troops based in Nasiriyah, and already has said it plans to pull out 1,600 of them this month.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has said that Iraqis would be ready to take over responsibility for the southeastern area where the Italians are based.
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more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003849298